University of Minnesota opens new Medical Devices Center

Cameras will allow for students to sit in on live surgeries, as surgeons will be able to see the students on monitors and communicate via the OR. Mocks ups of medical devices can be made up and some even done in one day. One of the major reasons for the center is to capture ideas from graduate students that often lost when they graduate. It’s a meeting of the minds for medical professionals and engineers to capture medical devices advances and work toward the future of better health care technology, somewhat in real time. At present, it is very difficult for an engineer to participate in surgical procedures and the camera operations will make this much easier, thus enabling a faster mock up of a medical device that would otherwise take weeks or months. BD

Parts of it may look like a basic wood shop, but a new advanced facility at the University of Minnesota is harnessing big ideas for medical devices. It's called the Medical Devices Center. Medical Devices Center director Art Erdman says, "I don't think there's any place across the country in an academic setting with this kind of facility.

Not only will graduate students be able to advance their ideas more easily, the center has also hired a team of engineering and medical experts, well established in their fields, to brainstorm ideas.